B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International strongly commends the U.S. decision to veto a June 1 U.N. Security Council resolution tabled by Kuwait. We thank Ethiopia, Poland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom for abstaining on this biased, one-sided resolution that blames Israel for defending itself, and absolves Hamas of fomenting violence against Israel.

What the Palestinians actually need is for the global community to finally understand that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are a threat to Israeli and Palestinian lives. The stated objective of Hamas is the destruction of Israel. The resolution should have condemned Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad by name for firing rockets on Israeli civilians. Last week, Kuwait blocked a Security Council statement that would have done so. Regrettably, a U.S.-submitted resolution that condemned Hamas did not pass at the council.

B’nai B’rith supported the effort by the United States at the United Nations to procure a statement from the Security Council that condemns Hamas for firing rockets into Israel.

During the U.N. Security Council meeting on May 30, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said: “It is outrageous for the Security Council to fail to condemn Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli citizens while the Human Rights Council approves sending a team to investigate Israeli actions taken in self-defense. I urge the members of the Security Council to exercise at least as much scrutiny of the actions of the Hamas terrorist group as it does Israel’s legitimate right of self-defense.”

Israel completely and unconditionally withdrew from the Gaza Strip well over a decade ago — only to be subjected to yet more indiscriminate terror from Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Israel has a fundamental right and obligation to defend its civilians and its borders, and it has done so with exceptional care and restraint. Hamas, for its part, has repeatedly been caught lying about Palestinian actions and casualties.